


Opening Night

by inappropriatestarstable



Series: Stripper AU [1]
Category: Star Stable
Genre: I mean it's a strip club so, Multi, Stripper AU, can't believe this shitshow was my idea, featuring more song lyrics i obviously don't own
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 20:49:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17230976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inappropriatestarstable/pseuds/inappropriatestarstable
Summary: The gang prepares for the opening night of Jorvik City's new strip club, the Three Ring Circus. Ariana belongs to me, Daine belongs to HellishSam, Viktor belongs to sso_Viktor7, Willow belongs to willownorthbook, and Roo belongs to fieldingfreja.





	1. Practice

Look, it wasn’t their idea to open a strip club.

Despite any hoe tendencies, despite any actual dancing or stripping experience, despite a long list of established clients that guaranteed a patronage for the club, neither Viktor, Daine, Roo, nor Ariana thought of it. They were perfectly content to ride horses and keep their sexcapades as a side hobby. Until Ydris came up with the idea of opening a club.

“I must say, I very much enjoyed this night’s show,” he’d said to Daine one night after a dazzling runway show in the middle of Fashion Week. “Especially with you on stage, my phoenix. You were _magnifique_.”

Daine had muttered his thanks while Ydris tilted his chin up with a long finger and pressed a kiss to his lips.

“Though,” Ydris purred thoughtfully, “I think you belong onstage for a different kind of show. One that can hardly be held here, in front of children.” He waved his fingers in the direction of Madison, who was dancing happily near the stage.

Daine raised an eyebrow. Something was up. “What did you have in mind?”

Ydris’s eyes sparkled. “I wish to set the stage for the best show Jorvik has ever seen. Starring my phoenix in all his beautiful, fiery glory, along with a selection of Jorvik’s most beautiful to show off their bodies and their skills before an enraptured crowd. A show of passion, of dance, of sex appeal.”

“So, a strip club,” said Daine.

Ydris winced. “The phrase comes with a connotation of vulgarity. No finesse.” He sighed. “But yes, I suppose I am thinking of a strip club.“

Daine huffed a laugh. “You’re in luck,” he’d said. “I know a couple of people who might be interested.”

From there, the idea had only to be passed to Roo, who pitched it to Willow, who was disgusted, and Louisa, who immediately told Ariana, who called Viktor. Before Ydris could blink, Daine had practically staffed his club for him. Ydris found a location in Jorvik City and threw himself into plans for renovation and decorating.

After a few months, the plans had come together, the place had been decorated, the staff had been hired, the promotions had been released, and Jorvik City was holding its breath.

—

From the outside, the Three Ring Circus looked like your typical club. Tucked down one of the shadier alleys of Jorvik City, across from a Chinese restaurant and a dubious-looking bar, its pink-and-purple neon sign flashed the club’s name into the dark street while lightbulbs surrounded the four posters spaced along the wall that led the eye from each one all the way to the dark purple door.

The posters echoed the vintage style of the traditional circus advertisement, but they were much more eye-catching, featuring actual photographs and a pink and purple color scheme instead of the usual red and yellow. Two young men and two young women stared seductively out at those who waited in line, their expressions promising a night of fantasy, fun, and sexual frustration to be found behind the club’s doors. In the posters they appeared unattainably beautiful—anyone’s fantasy.

In reality, things were a little different.

“Goddammit, Daine,” Ariana seethed. “Did you fucking take my shorts? I wanted to wear those for practice.”

“These?” Daine turned away from her, revealing the words _sugar baby_ in cursive script emblazoned across his ass. “I thought they were mine.”

Roo snorted out a laugh from the corner where she sat pulling her red hair into a ponytail. “‘Sugar baby’? Yeah right, you just wanted to wear them.”

Daine shrugged. “Whatever, you’ll get them back later.”

“Fine.” Ariana rolled her eyes and pulled on gray sweatpants instead before lacing up her sneakers. “They look better on me, though.”

Viktor came in the door of the practice room with his phone in his hand and a businesslike expression on his face. Without saying a word to anyone, he crossed to the whiteboard on the wall and scrubbed out a written “2” with his hand, writing a “1” in its place.

_DAYS UNTIL OPENING NIGHT: 1_

“Shiiiit,” said Ariana. “That soon?”

“Yes, that soon.” Viktor busied himself hooking his phone up to the speakers in the room. For the back room of a strip club, it made a pretty decent dance studio. Mirrors lined one wall and the sound system was only overshadowed by the one out in the main club area. Viktor had insisted to Ydris that without a proper place to practice, all he would have would be four really shitty strippers. And if there was one thing Ydris loathed, it was a subpar show.

Roo hopped out of her chair, her sneakers squeaking on the floor. “What are we doing first, Vik?”

“The opening number,” he answered, his dark eyes flicking to the whiteboard and back to the others. “It has to be perfect.”

“With the way you’ve been working us, it better be,” said Daine. Ariana snorted a laugh.

“We got this,” said Roo confidently, stretching her arms out in front of her and getting into place on the practice floor. “Hit it, Vik.”

They spread out across the floor, shaking out their limbs and locking eyes with their reflections in the mirrors as Viktor hit the music. Fall Out Boy’s “Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea” blasted from the speakers. With the first booming notes, the four heard their cue and took a few confident steps forward.

_I got too many memories getting in the way of me, I’m ‘bout to go Tonya Harding on the whole world’s knee_

They busted into their routine in perfect unison: a few powerful arm movements before a slide to the side and a quick body roll, stepping side to side and dipping one knee. Daine and Vik in the front, closest to the imaginary crowd, each threw out an arm as if to grasp the hand of an admirer, while in the back, Roo and Ariana tossed their hair and smirked.

_And I’m stuck night vision, so stuck night vision, but I come to life, come to life! Some princes don’t become kings, even at the best of times I’m out of my mind_

The two pairs leaned apart, then closer, pumping their fists at the repeated lyrics. Daine and Vik brought their hands to their heads almost as if putting on a crown, their eyes suggesting that the audience had better not forget who they were watching.

_You only get what you grieve. Are you smelling that shit? Are you smelling that shit? Eau de résistance!_

They jumped back into synchronization, snapping their arms back and forth as the rhythm picked back up. With the five punchy syllables of “Eau de résistance!” they switched positions in five steps: Daine and Viktor stepped back and Roo and Ariana stepped forward, throwing their arms to the ceiling in a victorious pose as the song hit the chorus.

_The only thing that’s ever stopping me is me, hey! The only thing that’s ever stopping me is me, hey! I testify that if I die in my sleep, then know that my life was just a killer dream, yeah!_

Everyone slid forward a step, standing tall with their chins up to convey power as they moved their arms, their movements adding emphasis on each “hey!” As the next line began, the boys threw their arms up as Roo and Ariana bent forward to whip their hair before straightening up and each doing a sensual body roll, reaching out a hand to the audience as the boys struck a pose to end the routine.

“How’d we do, Vik?” Roo used the hem of her loose T-shirt to wipe at a drop of sweat. “Think we’re ready?”

“We will be,” Viktor replied, “after three more runs.”

Ariana groaned dramatically. “If I have to look at Daine’s ass wearing my shorts for much longer I’ll scream.”

Daine laughed and pointedly turned his back on her.


	2. Opening Night

Roo slipped through the dressing room door, an eager grin on her face.

“Quite a crowd out there,” she said to the others. “Willow’s got her hands full at the door, and there’s a crowd like three deep around the bar.”

The Three Ring Circus’s opening night was underway. A line stretched from the front door past the posters of the stars, the eager crowd held at bay by Willow, her face impassive behind her black shades as she checked IDs and ushered patrons past the door with a wave of her muscular arm. Her girlfriend Alex stood guard at the backstage door, looking formidable in a dark suit and a deep purple shirt that matched what Willow was wearing. As the patrons entered the club, it would be difficult for them to decide where to look: to the bar, dark wood and rows of shining bottles lining the wall and crowds of excited people lined up for drinks handed to them by two clever blonde twins that moved almost in synch; to the main floor and the DJ table where people danced and Louisa’s girlfriend Lisa played them song after song that made them cheer; to the two side stages that branched off from the main one, where two women in pink bodysuits twined themselves around shining silver poles; or to the main stage, lit up and enticing, still drawing the eye despite having no one standing on it.

The show was set to start at the top of the hour, and with fifteen minutes to go, everything was in place but the stars. They darted back in forth in their shared dressing room, slipping into their outfits for the first number, arranging their hair, applying makeup, stretching out their limbs, and worrying. Viktor stretched his leg up against the wall, his black crop-top hoodie riding up over his stomach. Ariana shadowed and lined her gray eyes with to create her distinctive hoe look before she tossed the eyeliner to Roo, who carefully gave herself alluring wings. Daine lounged in one of the four director’s chairs that they had been given, tapping his fingers against his muscled arm.

Someone rapped on the door and Ariana, who was closest, slid off her chair in front of her mirror to answer it.

“Yeah?” she said, looking out into the hall before realizing she was addressing the air. She looked down at Xin. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Five minutes to showtime” he said, looking up at her from behind his mask before he left, calling, “Break a leg…” over his shoulder.

“God, that little fucker gives me the creeps.” Ariana shut the door. Roo grimaced in agreement. None of them much liked the club manager, Ydris’s little flying monkey, but so far Xin had proven himself capable of handling the business side of opening a club while Ydris handled the aesthetics.

“All right, guys,” Viktor flexed his arms out in front of him. “This is it. We’re gonna go out there and blow their minds.”

“Fuck yeah, we are.” Daine slid off his chair to join the group. Ariana threw an arm over each of the boys’ shoulders and shot a grin at Roo, who did the same, forming an impromptu group hug. Daine grumbled to himself but didn’t pull away.

“By the time the night’s over,” said Viktor, grinning at his friends, “they’re gonna remember our names.”

—

The crowd’s enthusiasm momentarily died as Lisa faded out the music, but they cheered as movement on the main stage caught their eyes: a tall, handsome man stepping out and raising his arms for attention.

“Ladies and gentlemen.” Ydris’s voice carried clearly through the room, his natural stage presence immediately arresting every eye.

“Welcome,” he said, grinning a feline grin, “to the opening night of my new venture, the Three Ring Circus!”

He raised his arms to the ceiling and the crowd cheered. Standing on the main stage, beneath the lights and the long swaths of deep purple and indigo cloth that draped from the ceiling to the walls, Ydris looked very much like the ringmaster of an actual circus.

“Tonight, you will experience a show unlike any other,” he continued, his blue eye sparkling under the lights. “I have gathered a selection of Jorvik’s most beautiful and most talented to perform for you all tonight!” He spread his arms and the audience cheered, raising their drinks in the air. Ydris grinned at them all. “I wish nothing more than for you all to be entertained.

“Now let the show begin.”

As Ydris left the stage, passing by his dancers waiting in the wings, he momentarily caught Daine by the chin.

“A kiss for luck, my phoenix?” he purred. “Though of course you won’t need it.”

Daine relented, letting Ydris distract him momentarily from the anticipation pooling in his stomach, before he pulled free and went to his place on the stage.

The crowd hooted and cheered as the four took the stage. Lisa hit the music, Fall Out Boy blasted through the sound system, and the group busted into their routine with practiced synchronization, moving like four pieces of a well-oiled, sexy machine.

With the intense song and the hip-hop moves, it wasn’t the routine one would expect for the opening night of a strip club, but Viktor had pitched the idea and Ydris had liked it immediately.

“It is a promise of things to come,” he’d said, grinning. “You do not reveal your greatest act before the audience has had a chance to warm their seats. First, you must get their attention.”

If the audience had come for a strip show, what they would receive from the first number was a teaser: Viktor’s abs visible beneath his crop top hoodie, Ariana’s long legs clad in skintight leggings, Roo’s lean body in a tight tank top, and Daine even managing to make athletic sweats sexy. As they danced, Fall Out Boy blasting through the club, the audience lit up with excitement. The women in the crowd screamed with delight as the Viktor and Daine placed their imaginary crowns on their heads, only to be drowned out a moment later by the men who whooped and shouted as Roo and Ariana stepped smirking to the front of the stage.

Though the routine was relatively short, it seemed to last several glorious minutes, and when they struck their final poses, the crowd’s excited cheering invigorated them. They grinned out at the crowd but were unable to keep from turning to each other before getting off the stage. The night was off to a very promising start.


End file.
